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Italian Horror Genius Mario Bava at the Cinematheque

Mario Bava made some of the most stylish fright films ever – and some of the most perverse! The Cinematheque retrospective, starting tonight, sounds like it’s pretty comprehensive and an awful lot of fun.

Here’s the press release:

THE AMERICAN CINEMATHEQUE AT THE EGYPTIAN THEATRE PRESENTS MARIO BAVA: POEMS OF LOVE AND DEATH

HOLLYWOOD – The American Cinematheque at the Egyptian Theatre presents MARIO BAVA: POEMS OF LOVE AND DEATH, a Retrospective of the Films of Horror Maestro Mario Bava, March 12 – 23, 2008. A childs frozen hand appears at the windowAn unconscious woman is violated next to a rotting skeleton…A sadist returns from the grave to torture his doomed lover…To enter the world of Italian horror and suspense master Mario Bava is to step silently through a mausoleum filled with beautiful corpses. Bava is often praised as one of the cinemas great stylists – and his talent for exquisite cinematography and production design allowed him to commit some of the most atrocious acts of violence ever filmed. But beyond his stylistic gifts, Bava (who died in 1980) achieved a chilling poetry all his own, a lyricism that links him to Cocteau, Buuel and the other great poets of the surreal and bizarre. Classic Bava such as BLACK SABBATH (from which Ozzys band took its name) and BLACK SUNDAY starring Barbara Steele, both screening in Uncut European Versions, will be shown, as well as the rare Not on DVD CALTIKI THE IMMORTAL MONSTER, Bavas legendary lost film KIDNAPPED (aka RABID DOGS) and much more. Bava fans and directors in their own right, directors Joe Dante (THE HOWLING; HBOs “Masters of Horror”), Eli Roth (CABIN FEVER; HOSTEL) and Ernest Dickerson (NEVER DIE ALONE; BONES) will be on hand to introduce some of the double features in-person and actress Elke Sommer will appear in-person for the double feature of LISA AND THE DEVIL and BARON BLOOD. A Bava DVD giveaway will take place at some of the screenings.

This series is in the Lloyd E. Rigler Theatre at the historic Egyptian (6712 Hollywood Boulevard

between Highland and Las Palmas) in Hollywood. Tickets are available on www.fandango.com. Guests subject to availability.

Born in San Remo in 1914, Bava “grew up in the midst of film, among picture frames, miniature models, and heaps of hyposulphite;” his father Eugenio was cinematographer on the silent classic QUO VADIS and a master of special effects. By the early 1940s, the younger Bava was photographing films for Pabst and Rossellini. Bava was nearly 50-years-old before he directed his first full feature, BLACK SUNDAY, a worldwide success that quickly established him as the premiere horror director of the 1960s. Since the Cinematheques first Bava retrospective in 1993 and follow-up in 2002, the director and his films have undergone a remarkable rediscovery by a new generation of film lovers. There are even plans underway to remake several of his classic pictures. Also Video Watchdogs Tim Lucas finally published his ultra-detailed magnum opus on Bava, All the Colors of the Dark. The renewed interest led to the creation of newly available 35 mm prints of many of Bavas films – our great thanks to producer Alfredo Leone and associate Timothy C. Bratt for making a number of these relatively newer prints available for this series, including KILL, BABY, KILL, A BAY OF BLOOD, FIVE DOLLS FOR AN AUGUST MOON, the Euro versions of BLACK SUNDAY and BLACK SABBATH and Bavas legendary lost film KIDNAPPED (aka RABID DOGS)! Well also be featuring such seldom-screened favorites as BLOOD AND BLACK LACE, THE WHIP AND THE BODY and HATCHET FOR THE HONEYMOON.

The Thursday, March 13th program is a 7:30 PM Double Feature. First up is a screening of the Uncut European Version of BLACK SUNDAY (LA MASCHERA DEL DEMONIO) (1960, International Media Films, 87 min.). Mario Bavas first full film as a director opens with a signature image: a beautiful witch spewing curses as shes clamped into a spiked mask. Barbara Steele is fabulous in a double role as the deathless witch and her own virginal descendant. Its a performance that brought her worldwide attention and a unique position as the most beautiful and seductive of horror film idols. Eerie, hallucinatory – essential Bava. With John Richardson, Ivo Garrani. “still the number one film of the Italian Horror renaissance, startlingly original and genuinely creepy. It introduced the icon Barbara Steele to the screen and is probably her best film as well. The blend of vampire and witchcraft lore is atmospheric (all of those real crypts and broken stairs) and violent.” – Glenn Erickson, DVD Savant (English dubbed print.)

Next on the same bill is a screening of the Uncut European Version! BLACK SABBATH (TRE VOLTI DELLA PAURA) (1963, International Media Films, 92 min.) directed by Mario Bava. Reportedly Bavas favorite of his films: three minimalist tales of terror, topped by “The Wurdelak” with Boris Karloff as a ravenous Russian vampire! This is the original European version complete with a different music score, alternate introduction by Karloff, and the restored sexual implications that had been changed when the film was released here by American International. With Mark Damon, Michele Mercier, Susy Andersen, Jacqueline Pierreux. “Yes, this is the film that Ozzy Osbourne and his rock star friends took the name for their band fromthe storiesstand up as compelling tales of terror in their own right, adeptly weaving the atmosphere of nightmaresa beautifully sustained exercise in scares” – Graeme Clark, The Spinning Image (UK) (In Italian with English subtitles.) Introduction to screening by director Joe Dante (THE HOWLING; HBOs “Masters of Horror”)
Friday, March 14, 2008 – Egyptian Theatre

The Friday, March 14th program is a 7:30 PM Double Feature. First up is a screening of FIVE DOLLS FOR AN AUGUST MOON (5 BAMBOLE PER LA LUNA DAGOSTO) (1970, International Media Films, 88 min.), directed by Mario Bava. A clique of the idle rich gathered for a swinging weekend at an island beach house are murdered one by one in this ultra-groovy, Pop Art giallo. Soaked with a glamorously sleazy ambience and an absurd lounge music score by the great Piero Umiliani, FIVE DOLLS emerges as one of the pinnacles of 1970s Euro-trash cinema! Supremely entertaining, with more of Bavas unique imagery that seems poised on that intangible borderline between sensual dream and inescapable nightmare. With William Berger, Edwige Fenech, Ira von Furstenberg. (English dubbed print.)

Next on the Same Bill is BLOOD AND BLACK LACE (SEI DONNE PER LASSASSINO), 1964, 88 min. Dir. Mario Bava. This fiendishly simple story of models at a fashion salon being stalked by a gruesomely imaginative killer is often credited as the film that started the Italian giallo (sexy suspense thriller) craze that mushroomed in the 1960s and 1970s. Bavas cast of characters is a fascinating catalogue of beautiful but flawed women and the men in their lives – self-seeking neurotics, alcoholics, addicts, lechers and psychotics. The directors color palette is awesome to behold. With Eva Bartok, Cameron Mitchell. “shares with FIVE DOLLS FOR AN AUGUST MOON and BAY OF BLOOD a crystallization of the director’s worldview, where the tension between opulent surfaces and moral dislocation hint at a closer affinity with Antonioni than is usually perceivednot for nothing is his exquisite feel for design, dcor, color, and movement tied to the endless cataloging of human sin, with beauty and ugliness, like desire and dread, forever leaking into one another.” – Fernando F. Croce, SlantMagazine.com (English dubbed print.)

Saturday, March 15, 2008 – Egyptian Theatre

The Saturday, March 15th program is a 7:30 PM Double Feature. First up is a screening of LISA AND THE DEVIL (1972, International Media Films, 95 min.) directed by Mario Bava. First released in the USA in an alternate edit with some different footage as THE HOUSE OF EXORCISM (to phenomenal success), this original, “directors cut” version is one of Bavas masterworks. Tourist Elke Sommer is lured by devil Telly Savalas into a household of white lilies and rotting corpses. Caught in a time warp of decadent, aristocratic decay and horrifying, half-remembered memories of a fatal amour fou, Sommer tries desperately to find her way out of the nightmare. But there may be no escape. Elegiac and dreamlike, with Bavas own poetic brand of morbid, melancholic lyricism. “Beautifully filmed and exquisitely scored by Carlo Savinaas much a dreamy art film as it is a European horror opus. Many of the images rank among Bava’s bestwith a strange and haunting finale that offers several levels of interpretation.” – Mondo-Digital.com; “a hauntingly beautiful poem about decay and death” — Phil Hardy, Overlook Film Encyclopedia of Horror (English dubbed print.)

Next on the same bill is BARON BLOOD (GLI ORRORI DEL CASTELLO DI NORIMBERGA) (1972, International Media Films, 100 min.) directed by Mario Bava. Lovely Elke Sommer is menaced by Joseph Cotten, a 400-year-old sadistic nobleman bent on restoring his youth in Bavas gruesome, grand guignol Gothic. With Massimo Girotti, Rada Rassimov. “an almost Technicolor richness that encompasses a wide range of styles, from an enameled hardness that recalls the work of Douglas Sirk to a luminous, painterly vividness based on Bavas fondness for color gels and his endlessly-churning fog machine ultimately a heady exercise in style, with several brilliantly mounted sequences; a convincing, insistent air of horror; and some unforgettable imagery.” – Gary Morris, Images Movie Journal (English dubbed print.) Introduction to screening by director Joe Dante (THE HOWLING; HBOs “Masters of Horror”) and discussion in between films with actress Elke Sommer.

Sunday, March 16, 2008 – Egyptian Theatre

The Sunday, March 16th program is a 7:30 PM Double Feature. First up is a screening of KIDNAPPED (LUOMO E IL BAMBINO, aka RABID DOGS), 2002 (shot 1974), International Media Films, 92 min.) directed by Mario Bava. A major rediscovery in Bavas career, the unfinished LUOMO E IL BAMBINO sat in a Rome film vault for over 20 years, until it was finally assembled for DVD release several years ago – and now for theatrical release as KIDNAPPED by producer Alfredo Leone, featuring several new additional scenes directed by Bavas son Lamberto, and additional music by Stelvio Cipriani! An experiment in pure, psychological terror, KIDNAPPED follows a trio of ruthless bank robbers as they hurtle around Romes super-highways in a stolen car with an old man and a seriously ill child. But stay alert – things are not what they seem to be in this brutally clever action thriller. (In Italian with English subtitles.)

Next on the same bill is SHOCK (aka BEYOND THE DOOR II) (1979, 92 min.) Mario Bavas last feature film (co-directed with son Lamberto, uncredited) revisits themes first explored in KILL, BABY, KILL and THE WHIP AND THE BODY, as Daria Nicolodi (DEEP RED) and her child are haunted by the ghost of her first husband, a drug addict. Actor Ivan Rassimov (MAN FROM DEEP RIVER), who usually played a villain in 1970s Italian pictures, does a rare good-guy turn here as Nicolodis concerned doctor. With John Steiner (TENEBRE) as Nicolodis current, almost-never-at-home airline pilot husband. Contains some of maestro Bavas scariest, most impressive effects. (English dubbed print.)

Thursday, March 20, 2008 – Egyptian Theatre

The Thursday, March 20th program is a 7:30 PM Double Feature. First up is a screening of DANGER: DIABOLIK (1967, Paramount, 100 min.) directed by Mario Bava. “Diabolik – out for all he can take, seduce or get away with!” Is there a groovier 1960s flick than this?! From sexy, cat-suited super-thief John Phillip Law to his gorgeous partner in crime, Marisa Mell, to Ennio Morricones psychedelic paradise of a score (including “Deep Deep Down,” one of the greatest spy-themes ever), this is the epitome of mid-20th Century Pop Art culture. This astonishing adaptation of the notorious, super-popular Italian comic strip looked so fantastic on completion, producer Dino DeLaurentiis was flabbergasted that Bava had completed the production for less than a third of the million dollar budget. “This is a wonderful comic-book of a filmthe films celebration of anarchic anti-authoritarianism makes it possibly one of the most entertainingly subversive films ever foisted on the public” – Richard Scheib, The Science Fiction, Fantasy & Horror Review (English dubbed print)

Next on the same bill is PLANET OF THE VAMPIRES (TERRORE NELLO SPAZIO), 1966, MGM Repertory, 86 min. Dir. Mario Bava. A doomed crew of astronauts (in eye-popping black leather space-suits) is stranded on a malevolent, mist-shrouded planet inhabited by a dying race of invisible body snatchers. Large portions of ALIEN were cribbed from this gorgeous, atmospheric thriller. For the planets exterior, Bava reportedly had an almost bare set with only a few giant prop rocks to work with – yet through his unique ability to work cinematic magic, drawing on his arsenal of matte paintings and cutouts, his use of forced perspective, models and his extraordinary lighting, the films special effects create a genuine bad-dream landscape. This is the restored uncut version with the original Italian score! With Barry Sullivan, Norma Bengell. (English dubbed print.)

Friday, March 21, 2008 – Egyptian Theatre

The Friday, March 21st program is a 7:30 PM Double Feature. First up is a screening of A BAY OF BLOOD (TWITCH OF THE DEATH NERVE, aka REAZIONE A CATENA) (1971, International Media Films, 84 min.) directed by Mario Bava. We tracked down the sole surviving print of this in Luxembourg for our Cinematheques Greatest Hits Series in 1998 – but now we have a much newer print that was struck in 2002. This is the great-granddaddy of slasher movies, a movie that profoundly influenced late 1970s and 1980s horror, from all the Italian gialli that came afterwards to the FRIDAY THE 13TH franchise. Thirteen oversexed Italians, most of them concerned with securing the land rights to the remote, rural bay of the title, slaughter each other in amazingly inventive ways. With Claudine Auger (THUNDERBALL), Luigi Pistilli (THE GREAT SILENCE), Laura Betti (LA DOLCE VITA; HATCHET FOR THE HONEYMOON).”Unreels like a macabre, ironic jokean Elizabethan tragedy as Tex Avery might have written.” – Tim Lucas. (English dubbed print.)

Next on the same bill is FOUR TIMES THAT NIGHT (QUANTE VOLTE QUELLA NOTTE), 1972, International Media Films, 83 min. Director Mario Bavas tongue-in-cheek, teasingly erotic take on Akira Kurosawas RASHOMON chronicles various versions of what really happened on libertine Brett Halseys date with lovely firebrand Daniela Giordano. A little-known comic gem from horror expert Bava. “a loose and breezy sex farceBava rises to the task quite well and brings his trademark visual skills into play for some dazzling little flourishes throughout the filmA colorful pop art feast for the eyes” – Mondo-Digital.com (English subtitled print.) Introduction by director Eli Roth (CABIN FEVER; HOSTEL 1 & 2).

Saturday, March 22, 2008 – Egyptian Theatre

The Saturday, March 22nd program is a 7:30 PM Double Feature. First up is a screening of THE WHIP AND THE BODY (LA FRUSTA E IL CORPO) (1963, 92 min.) directed by Mario Bava. Demonic aristocrat Christopher Lee returns from the dead to whip his brothers wife, Daliah Lavi (LORD JIM; the original CASINO ROYALE), into a sexual ecstasy in this chilling essay on the ties that bind. Amour fou is taken to its ultimate conclusion in a deliriously romantic study in perverse psychology, our choice as the most sumptuous, atmosphere-drenched Gothic chiller from the last forty years! Widely censored at the time of its release, this may be the only surviving print in the U.S. Carlo Rustichelli provided the melancholic score, rife with haunting love themes for the damned. “Lee once said that this inspired sado-masochistic fantasy is the best of his Italian filmsBava creates an uncannily sensuous atmosphere, especially when he trains his camera on Lavi, obsessively detailing her face as desire, pleasure and pain mingle in a hallucinatory erotic delirium.” – Phil Hardy, Overlook Film Encyclopedia of Horror (English dubbed print.)

Next on the same bill is KILL, BABY, KILL (OPERAZIONE PAURA), 1966, International Media Films, 83 min. Dir. Mario Bava. Forget the ridiculous title – this exquisite Gothic brings together several of Bavas major themes: a murdered child who returns from the grave to exact vengeance, and a village blighted by its own ignorant evil. One of the most atmospheric, effective ghost stories ever filmed. Another one of Bavas efforts that was plagued with money problems, you would never know it from his use of the evocative, antiquated locations and the astonishingly superior camerawork. At times, it assumes the hypnotic complexities of an M. C. Escher drawing. Suffused from beginning to end with yet another superb Carlo Rustichelli score. With Erika Blanc, Giacomo Rossi-Stuart. “The last great piece of suggestive horror filmmaking.” — Tim Lucas, The Darkside. (English dubbed print.) Introduction by director Ernest Dickerson (BONES; NEVER DIE ALONE; “The Wire

Sunday, March 23, 2008 – Egyptian Theatre

The Sunday, March 23rd program is a 6:00 PM Closing Night Triple Feature. First up is a screening of THE GIRL WHO KNEW TOO MUCH (aka THE EVIL EYE / LA RAGAZZA CHE SAPEVA TROPPO) (1963, International Media Films, 86 min.). Director Mario Bava pioneered the giallo genre with this Hitchcockian suspenser about a young American chased across Rome by “the Alphabet Murderer.” Tourist Leticia Roman visits her aunt, only to have the old woman die of a heart attack on her first night there – just as the electricity goes out! In quick succession, Roman runs out into the stormy night, gets knocked down by a purse snatcher and witnesses a brutal murder. But when she awakens in the hospital, no one believes her. She is befriended by a smitten young doctor (John Saxon), who begrudgingly helps her try to find the key to the mystery. Look for Italian American actor Dante DiPaolo as the tormented reporter who may know the killers identity (DiPaolo later became George Clooneys uncle by marriage to Georges aunt Rosemary). Originally released in the U.S. in a much altered version as THE EVIL EYE, this is the original Directors Cut. (In Italian with English subtitles.)

Next on the same bill is HATCHET FOR THE HONEYMOON (IL ROSSO SEGNO DELLA FOLLIA), 1970, 88 min. Dir. Mario Bava. Wealthy psychopath and wedding dress designer Stephen Forsyth is perfectly aware that he is crazy, and he skillfully covers his tracks as he stalks and murders potential brides before their nuptials. Hes also tormented by a childhood secret that he cant quite remember, an overwhelming force that sucks him ever deeper into the maw of madness. His own bitter wife (Laura Betti) finally pushes him over the edge to where he can no longer distinguish between fantasy and reality. The deliciously macabre script was co-written by Spanish genre specialist Santiago Moncada (A BELL FROM HELL) and an uncredited Bava. “one of Mario Bava’smost playful thrillers, a demented black comedy that pokes fun at the murderous psychos which were littering the European cinema screens during the late ’60sa beautifully filmed drawing room murder tale which unexpectedly leaps midstream into a bizarre and wholly original ghost story.” – Mondo-Digital.com (English dubbed print)

Next on the same bill is CALTIKI THE IMMORTAL MONSTER (CALTIKI – IL MOSTRO IMMORTALE), 1959, 76 min. “Slimy Glob of Doom Engulfs the World!” Signed by director Robert Hampton (a pseudonym for Riccardo Freda), who did just as he had done on the earlier I VAMPIRI – left after only a few days of filming, leaving the lions share of directorial chores to his good, yet unambitious friend, cinematographer Mario Bava. Although Freda had horror film chops of his own (i.e., THE HORRIBLE DR. HICHCOCK), he wanted to see Bava making his own pictures. There had been several very popular “giant globular amoeba” movies already such as THE BLOB, THE QUATERMASS XPERIMENT and X THE UNKNOWN, and here Bava tackles the subject with unnerving aplomb. Bavas opening evocation of the Mayan ruins on limited resources, conjuring the scary subterranean netherworld home of the ancient Caltiki, is a sight to behold. There are a number of grisly shocks for the time period. “visually it’s more of a bridge between film noir in the (cinematographer) John Alton mode, and the limitless imagination and ingenuity Bava would soon be applying to his own, official moviesextremely effective, sometimes horrifying visuals, particularly Bava’s gruesome makeup effects, which were without precedent in their nauseating graphicness by 1959 standards (beating Nobuo Nakagawa’s gore-fest JIGOKU by a year).” – Stuart Galbraith IV, DVD Talk (English dubbed print, screened from a digital video source) NOT ON DVD Introduction to the screening by actor Dante DiPaolo (THE GIRL WHO KNEW TOO MUCH).